The End of the Story
by Caskett1960
Summary: Just a short one-shot to further rip out the hearts of the fandom.
**THE END OF THE STORY**

 **RATING: K**

 **DISCLAIMERS: 'Castle' is the property of ABC Studios Production and Andrew W. Marlowe. No copyright infringement is intended.**

 **SUMMARY: Just a short one-shot to further rip out the hearts of the fandom.**

 **A/N #1: How am I feeling right now? In a word, devastated. I've never been this upset over losing a character from a TV show in my life, not even when they killed off Warrick on 'CSI.' I have literally been in tears for four days now. I really hope some of this is due to PMS; otherwise I feel like an idiot. I didn't come to watch 'Castle' live until Season 5, but I grew to love these characters like they were my own family. 'Castle' gave me a fresh perspective on writing again. I have met so many amazing people through Twitter and Facebook thanks to our love of all things Caskett. I hope that these friendships will continue. After this story, I will continue writing 'Castle' fan fiction, but as far as I'm concerned, Season 8 never happened. I never used that as a hashtag on Twitter. As my Twitter friend at NoOrdinaryLines stated 'I really hope that #Castle gets canceled so we can learn the real story.' Because deep down, we all know that it had nothing to do with money.**

 **A/N #2: Yesterday when I was on the bus, the song 'Separate Lives' came on my music player. Now, this is a song that I never really liked when it originally came out in the late 80's. But for some reason, the words sent tears pouring down my face. I always swore that I would never kill either Castle or Beckett in my stories, but I really feel that this is the only way that their love story can end is through death.**

The sun was bouncing off of the cold, grayish waters of the Atlantic on a cool June morning. Rick Castle had walked this stretch of beach hundreds, probably thousands of times before. But as he walked on this clear morning, his mind wasn't on the expanse of beach or of his neighbors' homes in the distance. He hadn't slept more than an hour or two in weeks, not since that day. That day when the word 'always' had come to a final, brutal end. Fighting LocSat had been a fatal mistake. He knew that he never should've told Kate what he found in L.A. If he had . . . if he had . . . the tears fell from his face like rain every time he thought of that final day.

He collapsed on the sand, wrapping his arms around his knees as he looked out to sea. This particular spot had always been Kate's favorite place. They'd sit here and watch the sun set over the ocean or occasionally when she could coax him out of bed, they'd come down and watch the sun rise. "I miss you, Kate," he whispered, tears rolling down his face. "I don't know how to do this without you. I'm so sorry. I never should've listened to Hayley. I just thought that if we worked together, we could take down LocSat. I thought working together that we could get justice for your other team. I overplayed my hand and I am so, so sorry. I know that you started to have doubts about Vikram and I wish I had listened. If I had listened, you'd be here with me now. Maybe we'd be talking about finally starting a family. It's tearing us apart, Kate. This new reality. I made your dad come out here because I was scared of what this was doing to him. He told me a long time ago that he'd come to peace with losing your mom, but losing you . . . I think he blames me, Kate. And I don't blame him. My mom and Alexis have been worrying about me. I don't sleep, Kate. I don't think I've slept since that doctor told me that . . . told me that you were gone."

He wiped at his eyes with the heel of his hand, wincing at the feel of grit from the sand getting in them. "We had you cremated, but of course I'm sure that you already know that. I gave some of your ashes to your dad. I'm going to take the rest today because I've finally decided where I want to put you to rest. Lanie took things really hard, Kate. She left and went back to be with her parents, which shocked all of us. The boys are having a really hard time and they both want blood. A part of me does, too, but I don't think I can take any more loss. I'm going to go back to the house and take a shower. I'll talk to you again in a few hours."

***CCC***

He didn't know why he hadn't thought about it sooner. He'd been trying to come up with a plan of where to put Kate to rest for weeks. He was sure that he didn't want an urn sitting on his desk for the rest of his life, although he did put some of her ashes in a small box that he did keep with him, along with her wedding and engagement rings. He'd tried to give her mother's ring and her dad's watch back to Jim, but the older man had insisted that Rick keep them. So he'd placed them all in a keepsake box, too.

Now he was walking toward the one place where they'd shared so many memories. He remembered Kate sitting beside him telling him that she couldn't have the relationship that she wanted with anyone until her walls came down. Just a year and a half later, he'd proposed to her on these same swings.

Tears once again began falling down his face when he opened the container and slowly tipped it over, watching as the wind picked up the gritty ashes and sent them swirling into the atmosphere. "I miss you, Kate. I love you and I promise that we'll meet again someday. Until tomorrow, detective."

 **A/N #3: This is probably the shortest story I've ever written. And I couldn't bear to end it with the word 'Always.' Because while it was once a beautiful, hopeful word, now it just sounds like an effing joke, as one of my muses wrote on Facebook.**

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